It is Tuesday, November 6, 2012 and I know the burning question on everyone’s minds today: How did the top US brands stack up in Year 4 of ComBlu’s State of Online Branded Communities study? Yes, folks, it is that time of year again when we uncover the top performing industries, brands and communities. I am happy to report that we have the best, the worst and everything in between.

Here’s a little refresher on the study. We joined and evaluated over two hundred communities of 92 major brands across fifteen different industries. Our goal was to understand the full end-to-end member experience each offered. Using a scorecard that captured both qualitative and quantitative information, we looked at the member journey from registration, to activation, to sustained engagement and beyond. You can find a copy of last year’s report here.

I can’t tell you much yet, but here is a little hint of what we found:

The Beverage Industry is innovative and ‘refreshing’, while Auto still fails to fuel the natural passion of its audience.

Crowd sourced member campaigns are trending up, but feedback and ideation on products is down.

Community management increased in percentage points, but is still ‘meh’.

Few communities extend the experience to mobile devices, including surprisingly the Mobile Industry.

Many brands actually went from “Cohesive Strategy” down to “Experimentation”.

The community vs. Facebook debate continues.

The study and all of the results and findings will be available next Monday, and you’ll be able to access it right here on our Web site.

Over the next few weeks we will continue to break down what we learned and the implications it has on community and social engagement. Stay tuned for upcoming webinars as well!

Senior Consultant
A social marketing specialist with expertise in advocate identification and engagement, social monitoring programs, content process, online communities and social performance metrics and analysis.
Experience across multiple industries including technology, professional services, manufacturing, consumer products, healthcare and entertainment.